HELP! I think my clay might be marring

[BMW335i]

I am clayng right now and its about mid 30`s. The sonus ultrea-fine clay bar is kind of hard to mold and when i tap it against my paint it makes a hard noise...should i clay inside? will this cause marring?

[imported_DieselMDX]

i would go inside I would imagine the cold is making the clay harder than usual and therefor it mike induce marring.





Maybe some hot water will help make the clay softer and easier to use

[Setec Astronomy]

I used some on a cold day like this and I think I got marring from it because it was so hard. Not positive that`s where the marring came from though, maybe I just never noticed it before. Certainly would be better if you can do it inside (not to mention more comfy for you!)

[Bbasso]

Get a bucket of HOT water and dip it in there while using it outside in cold weather.

[RAG]

Or microwave it a bit. Even when cold/hard, you shouldn`t get much marring from the ultrafine unless there`s a lot of contamination.

[Mr.H]

I used some gray ghost clay last night and that stuff is pretty hard to work with. It was well over 50 in the garage. I`ll have to try the hot water tonight.

[BMW335i]

OK well by the time you guys gave the suggestions it was nightfall but I did try the hot water tip..worked for about a minute and then it was still somewhat hard. I was constantly swapping thw two divided pieces of clay for the warmer/softer one once the one I was using got too hard. It still bended around the curves of the bodywork nicelyeven when cold/hard, though. You guys think I got any marring? I could mold the cla but it did take effort. I can`t see any marring, so far.



I have a new car and got little to no contamination on the clay...I was also using tons of lube and the clay was just floating on air basically. I used light-medium pressure.



The clay lube residue (sonus glide) was annoying to get off and was streaking like CRAZY. I thought the streaks were scratches and paniced for a moment but I went over it with a MF and it was gone (kind of).

[Envious Eric]

how can we tell you if you got marring....we are not looking at the paint...lol



if you were not picking up contamination, and think you might be marring the paint by claying NOTHING, then why are you claying?



clay residue needs to be wiped up pretty quickly...I dont do the whole car at one time unless I am going to wash it again afterwards - only for heavily contaminated cars, light clay duties get wiped up right away

[BMW335i]

I guess I kind of pictured clay feeling like Play-Doh...but it felt pretty firm and I usually dont like to put firm things against my paint. Now I can`t really tell if it marred bc of the marring I had before I did it.



I hear of details of new cars and how much contamination the clay picks up. But mine had verry little...was I doing something wrong?

[Envious Eric]

not really able to know....maybe you are, maybe not....I would say clay the whole thing, if it feels rough still, clay some more....if it feels smooth as butter, then start polishing....

[Accumulator]

I am clayng right now and its about mid 30`s. The sonus ultrea-fine clay bar is kind of hard to mold and when i tap it against my paint it makes a hard noise...should i clay inside? will this cause marring..[also]..The clay lube residue (sonus glide) was annoying to get off and was streaking like CRAZY. I thought the streaks were scratches and paniced for a moment but I went over it with a MF and it was gone (kind of)..



Sounds like it`s too cold for the claying (dunno for sure, I never tried it in such cold, always do it in a climate-controlled shop). You could try keeping it in your pocket to soften it up, but as soon as you use it on a cold panel it`ll probably get stiff again.



IMO the Glyde works well for its intended purpose, but I generally wash/rinse it off, or else I at least use lots of a "clean" QD to get it off.



IMO the Sonus green is a bit too mild for new-car decontamination, but it sounds like you might not have much contamination to deal with anyhow.

[Bbasso]

What i forgot to say before was, split the peice into two parts. keep one warm and use the other,, Swap when too firm. But Clay is not the most plyable thing either...



ToyotaGuy, what do you mean by "clay residue needs to be wiped up pretty quickly"?

I never had any issues wuth clay leaving a residue before.

[mikebai1990]

BMW335i, perhaps it wasn`t the clay that was too hard. I remember the last time when I clayed in cold weather, my hands just couldn`t take it. They were bright red and they were absolutely freezing. Hence, I couldn`t mold the clay because my fingers were so frozen. Did you have a similar problem?



Otherwise, I would probably recommend to clay before winter comes next time :)

[BMW335i]

BMW335i, perhaps it wasn`t the clay that was too hard. I remember the last time when I clayed in cold weather, my hands just couldn`t take it. They were bright red and they were absolutely freezing. Hence, I couldn`t mold the clay because my fingers were so frozen. Did you have a similar problem?



Otherwise, I would probably recommend to clay before winter comes next time :)



Yeah, I had that problem, lol. But it still felt sort of hard. I never read of horror stories of claying in too cold of weather, hence why I didn`t think twice about doing it, (plus I`ve never clayed before).

[RAG]

I guess I kind of pictured clay feeling like Play-Doh...but it felt pretty firm and I usually dont like to put firm things against my paint. Now I can`t really tell if it marred bc of the marring I had before I did it.



I hear of details of new cars and how much contamination the clay picks up. But mine had verry little...was I doing something wrong?



It should be (soft, that is), but most clay out there right now is absolute junk. If want a little softer clay, the Pinnacle is pretty soft. But the true "pinnacle" of clays was marketed by Optimum (opti-clay) was kneaded very easily and lasted forever...and best of all, didn`t marr paint.